


Beside the Still Waters

by Alixtii



Series: Psalm 23 [2]
Category: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: Bisexual Characters, Bisexuality, Cunnilingus, Established Relationship, Fellatio, Female Protagonist, First Time, Het, Multi, Oral Sex, POV Alternating, POV Female Character, POV Male Character, POV Teenaged Character, POV Third Person, Past Tense, Pool Sex, Post-Canon, Post-Series, Present Tense, Psalm 23, Queer Characters, Teenaged Protagonist, Threesome, Threesome - F/F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-27
Updated: 2009-07-27
Packaged: 2017-10-02 14:06:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alixtii/pseuds/Alixtii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In 2024 and 2016 (in that order), John goes swimming with Savannah.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beside the Still Waters

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to **anonymous_sibyl** for her wonderful work as beta on this fic.

_A.D. 2016_   
_Seven Years after "Born to Run"_   
_Timeline Delta Bravo Three, Code "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"_

Savannah watches Cameron as the machine ensures the two of them are alone in the locker room. The clothes she is wearing--or at least seeming to wear--fade into the dull silver of her mimetic polyalloy, then are replaced with the appearance of bare flesh and a blue string bikini.

Savannah frowns. It's painful every time she watches Cameron manipulate her form, the knowledge of what it took to give the cyborg that ability, of her mother's sacrifice, driving deep into her heart.

Not being a T-1001 herself (even with a nonstandard chip), Savannah changes into her bathing suit the old-fashioned way, stripping off garments and storing them in the locker and then pulling on each piece of her lavender two-piece.

The floor is cold against Savannah's bare feet as she and Cameron exit the locker room. John and Sarah are already in the pool, swimming laps leisurely as they wait for Cameron to time them--once they notice Cameron, both Connors suddenly fly forward in the water with a sudden burst of speed as they begin to really push themselves.

Savannah doesn't wait to follow their example, and plunges into the cold water of the pool and begins to swim, each stroke propelling her through the chlorinated liquid. She loves to swim; as she slips throughout the water, buoyant, she feels free in a way she does not when she is doing anything else. Judgment Day and the rise of the machines, the Resistance, and everything else in all the possible futures which have ever impinged on her or John's or Sarah's lives falls away, washed away by the cold water. She swims eight laps, pushing herself to go faster while pacing herself, then takes a rest and treads water, taking advantage of the time to take stock of her surroundings.

Cameron seems to be swimming leisurely; Savannah knows the machine is more interested in keeping an eye on all the pools' occupants than exercise she doesn't need. Sarah is swimming ferociously, as always demanding of herself all that she can give and then some.

John, however, is staring right at Savannah, watching her with the faraway look he gets when he is looking at her but seeing someone else, the other her, the older Savannah who was to be and will be no longer, the victim of a mutable fate, lost in the shifting of the timelines.

.

_A.D. 2024_   
_Eight Years after Judgment Day_   
_Timeline Gamma Alpha Two, Code "Born to Run"_

Savannah stuck her head into the room where John was working on reprogramming one of the captured T-400's. "Connor," she announced crisply. "You're with us."

Without hesitation John got up and followed Savannah. When he got into the corridor, however, he was surprised to find that apparently "us" was just Savannah and Allison. "Special mission?" he asked.

 

  
"You could say that," was all Savannah answered. He wasn't sure what to make of that; he hadn't quite learned how to read Savannah at all times yet. He simply followed the women's lead to the armory, where they began to arm themselves for a field mission: rifles, extra ammunition, med kits, et cetera. He didn't ask any questions, assuming that Savannah would enlighten him when she saw fit.

Their next stop was a vaulted room that required a retinal scan from Savannah before opening its door to allow them entrance. When John followed Savannah and Allison inside, he found a long room lined with inactive Terminators of a variety of models and series--there were T-200's and T-600's, and even a couple T-400's identical to the one he had just been working on. There were even infiltrator-class models, human-looking figures eerily frozen in place.

Savannah stopped in front of a pair of T-350's, and quickly typed a code onto a nearby keypad. "Rusty, Silver--it's time to wake up," she said, and the two machines began to power up, their eyes quickly glowing red. "Come on, boys," she ordered, then turned and exited the vault, with John, Allison, and the two machines following behind her.

As they exited the compound, the guard on duty snapped to attention. "Ma'am!"

"At ease, soldier," Savannah told him. "We're just going out to take the boys for a walk." She nodded towards the two T-350's.

The guard nodded and settled back into a comfortable slouch. For the thousandth time, John had to wonder if command came so naturally to him in the many timelines where he led the Resistance as it seemed to come to Savannah here. Hard to believe.

Then again, he knew appearances could be deceiving, that he wasn't the only one comparing Savannah to that alternate future version of himself.

John had become comfortable with parts of the post-apocalyptic landscape during his searches for Catherine Weaver and John Henry, but he was unfamiliar with the path they were taking now, which seemed to weave into nearby hills. "So where exactly are we going?" John asked at last, his curiosity finally getting the better of him.

Savannah glanced back at him and smiled. "Wait and see, John. Wait and see." She exchanged a knowing smile with Allison.

John blinked; Savannah had never before called him "John" in front of her men--he was always "Connor." Then again, she still hadn't; Allison might be a capable soldier, but a man she most certainly was not. Savannah had told him how she had come to rely on the girl, how important it had been to be able to connect with another woman in a Resistance full of men looking up to her as their commander.

He allowed himself to relax a bit; travel outside the compound always carried a certain amount of danger, but if Savannah could kid around, then their mission must not be particularly high-risk.

But what exactly what _were_ they doing out there, then?

.

_A.D. 2016_   
_Seven Years after "Born to Run"_   
_Timeline Delta Bravo Three, Code "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"_

Savannah sees John realize she's noticed him watching her. He looks away at once, rather unsubtly, and a moment later begins to swim. Savannah starts swimming as well, but instead of going as fast as she can she makes a point of matching his speed; while an able swimmer, John's never been completely comfortable in the water, not like Savannah is, and she's able to keep his pace with ease.

It doesn't take John long to realize what she's doing; when he gets to the end of the pool, he stops and reaches for the side.

Savannah stops with him, simply stays there and watches him, a smile on her lips. He squirms under her gaze, opens his mouth to speak, then closes it again, as if unsure what he can say, unwilling to admit that anything out of the ordinary is happening between them.

Savannah decides to take mercy on him. "Race me to the other side?" she asks, and when John nods, kicks off from the side of the pool and begins to stroke.

.

_A.D. 2024_   
_Eight Years after Judgment Day_   
_Timeline Gamma Alpha Two, Code "Born to Run"_

"Rusty, Silver--sentry," Savannah commanded, and the two machines took up guard positions. They were at a narrow pass in the hills, so by posting the T-350's at one end of the defile she'd effectively blocked all access completely. They walked through for about five minutes, before they came to a dead end: a small waterfall draining into a large natural pool.

Savannah led him around the waterfall. There was a large hollowed area _behind _it, he realized, a rock shelter which would effectively hide them from any aerial HK's which might be patrolling the area. Between that and the 350's guarding the pass, they were now about as safe as they could be outside the compound--two 350's might not last long in a firefight against more advanced Terminators, but the pass itself was too narrow for anything but T-class series and by the time those made their way through the defile the three of them, having been alerted by the 350's, would have had several minutes to prepare their defense, with the opportunity to knock off each machine more or less individually as it emerged from the defile.

Savannah definitely knew what she was doing. Sarah had trained her well.

She had begun placing LED lanterns around the cave, illuminating it with a harsh white light, while Allison was kneeling over a particle tracker. "It's safe," the girl announced after a moment, and Savannah responded by almost immediately dropping her jacket and pulling her shirt off over her head. Allison stood up and began stripping as well, and within moments both girls were nude and in the pool.

He allowed himself only　 a moment of hesitation, not willing to acknowledge to Savannah that she managed to take him by surprise, before he followed the girls' lead and removed his clothes, knowing that when they were back in the compound, in the privacy of Savannah's quarters, she would never have let him live it down.

The water was cool as he slipped into it and began to tread water. 　

The girls were taking turns diving down as far as they could in the surprisingly deep water of the pool; he joined them, taking a deep breath and swimming down, down, until the urge to breath became so strong he knew if he didn't surface soon he would be breathing in water. And as much as he enjoyed Savannah's lips on his, he knew they both could do without her needing to do CPR on him.

The water was clear enough, and the LED's bright enough, that John was able to see the girls' naked forms clearly. Neither body was exactly new to him; Savannah's nude form had already become quite familiar in the time he had spent in the future, and he had seen Allison's body, in the person of Cameron, naked during that first jump forward to 2007, and had seen it topless right before his second jump, when he had checked Cameron's breastplate. Still, with Allison instead of Cameron inside, it wasn't quite the same thing

.

_A.D. 2016_   
_Seven Years after "Born to Run"_   
_Timeline Delta Bravo Three, Code "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"_

Savannah wins the race, of course, and insists this means that John has to buy her cheese fries as her prize and his penalty. John gives in as she knew he would, and they get out of the pool and dry themselves off. John brushes himself off with the towel and then drapes it across his shoulders like a cape, but Savannah just pats herself down lightly and then returns the towel, walking with John to the snack bar in just her swimsuit.

She catches him glancing uncomfortably at her body, wet and exposed, more than once. He's been more or less awkward around her ever since she began growing breasts, and she knows it's cruel of her to taunt him this way, but damn it, it's not her fault that she shares a childhood and genetic template with his erased-from-future-history girlfriend.

John loves her--maybe not the same way he did, and she knows always will, the _other_ Savannah, but he has protected her for these last seven years, ever since the T-1001 who had been her mother traveled with him to a future (no longer _the_ future) and never came back except as the polymetal shell Cameron's chip now resides in. Together they've faced T-888's and military supercomputers and secret conspiracies within the NSA. They've shared moments much more intimate in their own way than anything that other Savannah could have had with John in the short time they had together.

They sit down across from each other at one of the plastic picnic benches with the cheese fries between them. John's eyes are locked on her own as they converse, refusing to let his gaze drop even a little bit, even as he takes a cheese fry from inside the paper basket.

.

_A.D. 2024_   
_Eight Years after Judgment Day_   
_Timeline Gamma Alpha Two, Code "Born to Run"_

Savannah swam up beside John, treading water next to him. "So what do you think?"

"It's a nice spot," he told her. "Easy to defend."

She made a face. "You sound like your mother."

John did his best to shrug his shoulders while still treading water. "She was a smart woman. And she raised two pretty awesome kids, if I say so myself."

Savannah smiled and, putting a hand on his shoulder, pulled herself up to kiss him. She ended up pushing his head under water, which he suspected was part of her plan all along. Their kiss was not quite air-tight, and he suddenly found water rushing into his mouth, but he kissed her back regardless. Her body brushed against as they came back up for a, and his already half-erect cock was suddenly at full attention. Savannah smiled and, still treading water with one hand, brushed against it with the other. He had to to concentrate on continuing to tread as a determined stroking began to commence. Then Savannah's head dropped below the water and suddenly the cold wetness which had surrounded his cock was a replaced by a warm one as it is engulfed by Savannah's mouth.

Allison treaded water just a few feet away, an amused look on her face as she watched Savannah give John the underwater blowjob.

Savannah came up for air, and the cold water flowed back around his cock, eliciting a quick gasp from John. Allison did a quick dive and, before he could process what was happening, her mouth was where Savannah's had been, her tongue rubbing against the head of his cock. John's even treading of water was quickly replaced with a frenzied doggy paddle as he became unable to concentrate on anything but the distraction of Allison's mouth on him.

Allison came up for air, and Savannah's head quickly bobbed under the water to replace her. The two women continued on in this fashion, each replacing the other when she came up for a breath. John began to breathe heavy as one barrage of sensations would hit him and then just as quickly be replaced with the next: Savannah's mouth, the cold water of the pool, Allison's mouth, the cold water again, Savannah, cold water, Allison. The alternation of cool and warm was almost painful, but it focused his mind on a series of sensations which would have been hard to ignore under any set of circumstances: Allison's tentative licks, Savannah's almost frenetic suction.

Somehow through the dizzying cycling of sensations, John was able to look from Savannah to Allison, their heads bobbing up and down in the water, and managed to wonder how exactly how Savannah had proposed this outing to the other girl. "Do you want to go naked swimming with us and help me give my boyfriend a really kinky blowjob?" How do you ask that?

Except that it was clear by now that Savannah and Allison were comfortable enough with each other that may well have been just the phrasing Savannah may have used. Obviously Savannah and Allison had been to this spot before, after all. It probably hadn't even taken that many words. 　

It wasn't long until he was right on the edge of spending himself--indeed, he was surprised he had manage to last so long under the circumstances. Savannah seemed to recognize that his stamina was reaching its limit, for the oral sex promptly stopped and with a few powerful scissor kicks, Savannah had pushed John to the end of the pool. With Allison's help, she lifted him out of it so that John was sitting on the edge of the rock face, his feet dangling in the water. Allison put her hands on his shoulders and used him to pull herself up out of the water, her feet on either side of him and her knees bent, so that her hips hung a couple of feet above the water's surface. Maybe not the most comfortable position in the world, but if her conditioning routine was anything like Savannah's, John suspected she would be able to hold it for quite a long time.

Savannah, in the water at John's feet, reached up and gently began fingering Allison, and slowly the girl's natural juices, which had of course been washed away by the water of the pool, began to flow. Savannah removed her fingers from Allison and, positioning herself in between John's legs, her back against him so that his cock was between her shoulder blades, began to work the other girl with her tongue. From the flush that spread across Allison's breasts and face, it wasn't long before she was as close to orgasm as John himself--who was just as much a hair-trigger away from ejaculation as he had been when they had stopped blowing him underwater. Savannah dived back down, and Allison slowly lowered herself on John, smiling warmly at him, as if none of this was strange, as his cock slipped inside her.

John ran his hands across Allison's body as she rose and lowered herself on his lap, this strange woman who was not Cameron, was nothing like Cameron (Cameron had never fucked him on the edge of a pool while his lover--and hers as well, it seemed--watched, that was for sure), but had Cameron's body. One hand squeezed her breast, the other her buttocks; his teeth gently scraped across her chin. John came first after holding on for as long as he could, but from the sound of it Allison came soon after, while he was still inside of her. She pulled herself in to him and kissed him quickly on the lips, then let go of him and let herself fall back into the pool.

Having spent himself, John was already fading fast, but that didn't stop Savannah from mounting him and taking Allison's place. They fucked like that for over a minute, but soon John, his erection finally gone, lifted Savannah up by her shoulders and sat her down next to him on the rock. He kissed her, then slipped into the water at her feet, next to where Allison was already treading water.

He and Allison exchanged a smile; he might not be able to read her as well as he could Cameron, but he was pretty sure they both had had the same idea and had just agreed to a course of action. Grabbing Savannah's thighs and using them to pull himself up an inch or two, he went down on Savannah, then after a few seconds he let go and pushed off from the cliff with his legs to give Allison a chance. He watched as Allison worked intently, clearly familiar with what exactly Savannah liked.

When Allison pulled back to give John another turn, he kissed her, deeply this time, both their mouths tasting of Savannah. He was surprised at just how intimate the kiss seemed even after what had gone before, the simple gesture of an open-mouth kiss able to say things that the wildest sex hadn't.

He didn't know what Allison was to him now, what she was or had been to Savannah, what it meant that he had just had sex with a girl who looked exactly like the robot he had travelled to the future to save. But it didn't matter; the kiss was a symbol of acceptance, that he would accept her for who and what she was and take whatever she was willing to give. A look of understanding passed between them as they broke the kiss, a look Cameron for all he loved her never would have been capable of, and then John eagerly reapplied his attention to that which was waiting between Savannah's open legs. Here, he was on familiar ground--well, except for literally.

"Oh, God," Savannah whispered, then, louder: "_John_."

He and Allison continued to alternate performing cunnilingus. Savannah had always been silent when they had made love in the compound, but here in the open her whimpers slowly turned to moans, which soon became ecstatic cries, until Savannah's shouts became so ear-piercingly loud that John was surprised a whole fleet of HK-VTOL's didn't descend on them right then and there.　

.

_A.D. 2016_   
_Seven Years after "Born to Run"_   
_Timeline Delta Bravo Three, Code "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"_

"You need to work on your scissors kick," Savannah says to him.

She expects him to react to her criticism the way he usually does, the way most older brothers probably react to annoying little sisters, but for some reason he doesn't. He simply looks at her thoughtfully and waits for her to go on.

"You're relying on your upper body strength too much," she continues. "You need to be able to propel yourself faster with just your legs. In a combat scenario you're going to need to have your arms free, you know."

He nods. He's not looking her straight in the eyes anymore; his sightline has dropped slightly. He's looking at her, all of her, actually giving her his attention rather than trying to focus on just one small part of who and what she is. It's a heady experience.

"Let's go to back to the pool," she says. "We can practice some lifesaving rescues if you want."

John smiles and Savannah knows some kind of detente has been brokered. "Okay," he says.

They get up from the table to go, and Savannah offers John her hand as they walk back to the pool. To her surprise, he takes it, and as they walk hand in hand Savannah is sure that whatever it might be the two of them are to each other--brother and sister, once and future lovers, or just friends or comrades or soldiers-in-arms--they would face the future, with whatever horrors or wonders it might hold in store for them, just like this: together.

.

_A.D. 2016_   
_Seven Years after "Born to Run"_   
_Timeline Epsilon Charlie Four, Code "Radio Nowhere"_

Savannah watches herself as she pretends to be drowning and gets rescued by John. She looks so young at sixteen, even though she knows there are timelines where she already was running the Resistance at that age. She's already lost her mother twice, and seen things most people wouldn't believe, but it all pales in comparison with Judgment Day, and what she sees on teen Savannah's face is innocence and naïveté. As John pulls her out of the water, they smile at each other, and the devotion both have for each other seems clear for all to see.

That had been a good day, she remembers.

She--the older Savannah, that is--is standing back in the corner, and John hasn't noticed her yet. Possibly won't notice her; she isn't sure yet whether she's caught in a causality loop or whether her very presence here is changing history.

Cameron's panopticonic gaze, on the other hand, _has_ noticed her, either because the machine has figured out who Savannah is, or just because she's noticed Savannah watching John and Savannah and thinks she might be a threat. Cameron's approach isn't particularly threatening however, so Savannah just waits until the cyborg joins her. She puts a hand on Cameron's shoulder, and the cyborg doesn't react, so apparently the T-1001 does recognize her.

Young Savannah whispers something in John's ear--it was so long ago for this Savannah that she doesn't even remember what it was she had said--and both suddenly burst out in laughter, giggles almost, as they dry off and walk off together.

"I should follow them," Cameron says simply, but Savannah doesn't release her grip on the Terminator's shoulder, not that that would make the slightest difference if Cameron wanted to go.

"They'll be fine," Savannah promises the machine, trusting that even if she has altered the timeline, the change can't be that massive, not this soon. "Let them have this time together."


End file.
